Friday, June 12, 2015

The dramatic increase in
the number of school-age children identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has created an urgent need to design and implement positive behavioral
supports in our schools’ classrooms. Only 3% of children with ASD are
identified solely by non-school resources. All other children are identified by
a combination of school and non-school resources (57%), or by school resources
alone (40%). As a result, schools today face the challenge of providing
appropriate services to a diverse and increasingly numerous student population
diagnosed with ASD. Unfortunately, educators and service providers are often
faced with confusing and conflicting information about the numerous treatments
and interventions available for autism.

Although there is no
"one size fits all" or single effective intervention, evidence-based
strategies such as self-management have shown considerable promise in
addressing the attention/concentration difficulties and poor behavioral
regulation of students with ASD. According to the National Autism Center’s National Standards Project, Self-management is among the interventions or
treatments identified in the category of “established” or effective treatments.
These strategies involve teaching individuals with ASD to evaluate and record
the occurrence/nonoccurrence of a target behavior and secure reinforcement. The
objective is to be aware of and regulate their own behavior so they will
require little or no assistance from adults.

Defining
Self-management

Self-management strategies
have been implemented successfully for students with a wide range of academic
and behavioral challenges. This group of procedures typically involve the components
of self-observation and self-recording, which together comprise
self-monitoring. Students are instructed to (a) observe specific aspects of
their own behavior and (b) provide an objective recording of these observations.
The procedure involves providing a cue or prompt to the student and having he
or she determine whether or not they engaged in a specific behavior at the
moment the cue was supplied. The activity of focusing attention on one’s own
behavior and self-recording these observations can have a positive “reactive”
effect on the behavior being monitored.

Benefits of
Self-Management

One of the prominent
features of more capable students with ASD is an absence of, or a poorly
developed set of self-management skills. This includes difficulty directing,
controlling, inhibiting, or maintaining and generalizing behaviors required for
adjustment across home and school settings. By learning self-management
techniques

• students become more
independent, self-reliant, and responsible for their own behavior and less
dependent on external controls and continuous supervision

• have an opportunity to
participate in the design and implementation of their own behavior management
programs, rather than traditional “top down” external contingency approaches

• acquire a “pivotal”
skill that facilitates generalization of adaptive behavior, supports autonomy,
and has the potential to produce long lasting behavioral improvements across a
range of contexts.

It is important to note
that self-management interventions are intended to complement, not replace,
positive reinforcement procedures already in place in the classroom. They
should not be considered as static and inflexible procedures, but rather a
“framework” in which to design and implement effective interventions to
facilitate the inclusion of students with ASD and other disabilities in general
education settings.

Designing a
Self-management Plan

Designing and implementing
a self-management strategy need not be a complicated or difficult undertaking.
However, there are several questions to consider:

• What is the target
behavior(s)?

• In what setting(s) will
the student self-monitor?

• What type of prompt
(cue) is most appropriate?

• How often will the
student self-monitor?

• What external incentive
or rewards will be used?

The following steps
provide a general guide to preparing and implementing a self-management plan in
the classroom. They should be modified as needed to meet the individual needs
of the student.

Step 1: Identify a preferred behavioral target. The
initial step is to identify and define the target behavior(s). It is best to
monitor one or a small number of appropriate, desired behaviors at first. Describe
the behavior in terms of what the student is supposed to do, rather than what
he or she is not supposed to do. This establishes a positive and constructive
“alternative” behavior.

Step 2: Determine how often the student will self-monitor
the target behavior. The schedule of self-monitoring will depend on the
student’s age, cognitive level, and the severity of the problem behavior. Some
students will need to self-monitor more frequently than others. For example, if
the goal is to decrease a challenging behavior that occurs repeatedly, then the
student should self monitor a positive, replacement behavior at more frequent
intervals.

Step 3: Meet with the student to explain self-monitoring,
and identify goals and rewards contingent upon achieving those goals. Active
student participation is a necessity as it increases proactive involvement and
a perception of “ownership” in the plan. It is important to provide the student
with a definition of self-management and the benefits of managing one’s own
behavior.

Step 4: Create a student self-monitoring form. Develop a
form for the student to monitor and record his or her behavior(s). The form
should also include a method of recording responses (plus or minus; yes or no;
happy face or sad face) to the questions and specify the student's daily behavioral
goal (e.g., was I following the classroom rules?).

Step 5: Teach the Student. After the targeted behaviors,
goals, and incentives are identified and defined, the student should be taught
to use the self-monitoring procedure. Ideally, teaching should take place in
the actual setting (classroom) in which the behavior occurs. Ask the student to
observe while you simulate a classroom scenario and demonstrate the process of
self assessment and recording with the self-monitoring form. The student should
also be encouraged to role play both desired and undesired behaviors at various
times during practice, and to accurately self-monitor these behaviors.

Step 6: Implement the self-management plan. The student
should rate his or her behavior on the self-monitoring form at the specific
time interval established. For example, a student might be prompted (cued) to
record his behavior at 5 or 10 minute intervals. When prompted, the student
records his or her response to the self-monitoring question (e.g., was I paying
attention to my seat work?) on the form.

Step 7: Meet with the student to review the
self-monitoring results each day and determine whether the behavioral goal was
achieved. As soon as possible, hold a "brief" conference with the
student to determine whether the behavioral goal indicated on the
self-monitoring form was met for that day. Praise the student for completing
the self-monitoring form and provide the agreed upon reward for achieving the
behavioral goal.

Step 8: Provide the rewards when earned. Although self-monitoring
can sometimes be effective without incentives, positive reinforcement increases
the impact of the intervention and makes self-monitoring more motivating, even
for the most difficult child.

Step 9: Incorporate the plan into a school-home collaboration
scheme by sending the self-monitoring form home for parent review and signature.
Autism professionals agree that a parent-teacher partnership is fundamental to
effective educational intervention. The self-monitoring form should be sent
home each day for parent signature to ensure that the student receives positive
reinforcement across settings.

Step 10: Fade the self-monitoring plan. The procedure
should be faded once the student demonstrates that the “new” behavior is firmly
established. This typically involves gradually increasing the time interval
between both the prompt and rewards. The ultimate goal for the student is to
monitor his or her behavior independently without recording, external cues, and
incentives.

Conclusion

Self-management procedures
are cost efficient and can be especially effective when used as a component of
a comprehensive intervention program (e.g., functional assessment, social
groups, curricular planning, sensory accommodations, and parent-teacher
collaboration). While the research on the effectiveness of interventions for
children with autism is still in a formative stage, self-management is an evidence-based
strategy for fostering independence and self-control in high-functioning
students with ASD.

1 comment:

Great post. Self-management is a good technique for helping students with behavioral issues and the steps explained here are easy to use and hence can be used by all autism schools for special education for developing their child’s skills accordingly.

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